Do you think that the classic American style – Ralph Lauren, oxford shirt – will be the destination of MAGA forever, or do you see it changing? I don’t think the classic American aesthetic is really MAGA, though. I think Brooks Brothers is like the ABC of menswear; that’s like thinking of a very classic American author. In the post-war period, right after the end of World War II, there was a cultural clash between the lifestyle of the establishment-people in gray flannel suits who work in company projects and have a conventional type of nuclear family and white-picket-house fence-and counterculture. This is the liberal side of the political spectrum. He wears work clothes and chambray shirts, hippie gear, motorcycle jackets. It’s all a counterculture. But if you go back further than that, everyone wears tailored clothing, from criminals to CEOs to liberals and Republicans. Ralph Lauren couldn’t have built his empire if button-down shirts and penny loafers were the only things he dressed conservatively. Do you see them coming together? I think it’s a strange dichotomy at the moment, because the MAGA movement and the Republicans in general have always kind of looked back to some idea of America. Although not everyone wore suits in the 1950s, the suit was historically associated with a bourgeois lifestyle. And a lot of conservatism is generally about upholding bourgeois lifestyles, morality, identity, politics, etc. Now there is a populist part of the Republican Party that is not about Reaganism or Bush. It’s very much about Trump. And that aesthetic is very different from what William Buckley would wear. William Buckley wouldn’t wear gold sneakers. I think it’s different and contradictory, but people can hold contradictory ideas in their heads. We are in a very tribal political era. And if it fits our tribal narrative, then I think it’s a good fit for the group. For Republicans, I think these two contradictory aesthetics are in the party right now. Technology people are new to many MAGAs, but many people have noted a significant change in their appearance, especially Mark Zuckerberg. Can you tell me what you are trying to signal and to whom? I heard through the grapevine in that industry [Elon Musk] used to have a stylist. I don’t think she has a stylist anymore. Mark Zuckerberg denies having a stylist, but I don’t believe him. He’s definitely going through a style transformation in the last year and three months, I’d say. Jeff Bezos clearly has a stylist. I don’t think what he does has anything to do with politics. I think Jeff Bezos went through a style change after his divorce. And I suspect Mark Zuckerberg is just tired of dressing like a college student. Elon has clearly given up on the stylist and is not very rich.[Zuckerberg] dress more like an MMA guy. He wore a plaid shirt and a gold chain. But he looks like someone who updated his look to be more trendy. There are a lot of guys wearing silhouettes and gold chains like that, and I don’t know if anyone talks about their politics. What are your thoughts on this? As a fashion trend, the Western look is really more liberal, nowadays, because it is popular in big cities. Conservatives today dress like metrosexuals in the early 2000s, and liberals dress like Bush-era conservatives. Conservative in a slim-tight or slim-fit suit, and then liberal like Carhartt double knee, Western shirts, Cowboys boots. There are a few on the right because this is a Midwestern look. But Elon Musk often wears cowboy boots, just like Jeff Bezos.
